The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

The College Board is upping its equity as a pipeline to higher ed with a redesigned SAT. The revamped test and other new College Board initiatives, including a test prep partnership with online education site Khan Academy, are part of a broad push for greater access opportunities, especially for disadvantaged students, according to David Coleman, the nonprofit’s president.

The new SAT will return to a 1600 grading scale, remove the penalty for wrong answers, and substitute esoteric “SAT words” with vocabulary questions with real-world application. It will focus on evidence-based reading and writing, and core mathematics, and offer an optional analytical essay. Additional initiatives include fee waivers for college applications for income-eligible students and a greater hand in grades 6 to 12 curriculum design.

The new strategy, the first major change in Coleman’s 18-month-long tenure at the College Board, is expected to have a significant impact on getting more low-income kids on the college track and into schools -- and broaden the reach of the test. “What this country needs is not more tests, but more opportunities,” Coleman says, “by giving students the admissions fee waivers they need, information they understand, and the encouragement they need to apply more broadly.” This commitment will be supported by the board’s 6,000 member institutions and will go into effect spring 2016.

For many low-income students, who score an average of 300 points lower their highest-income peers, SAT scores may determine not only where they earn degrees, but whether they graduate from college at all. Students with low SAT scores and GPAs are rarely admitted to four-year universities, where they are much more likely to graduate with bachelor’s degrees than students who begin at community colleges. Students with low SAT scores are also rarely admitted to selective private universities, which often offer robust financial aid and support systems for low-income students. In some cases, students can even receive a stronger financial aid package because of their high SAT scores.

The fairness of admissions testing has increasingly been called into question, the harshest criticisms often focusing on the outsize advantage the test prep industry gives students whose families are able pay hundreds to thousands or dollars with the hopes of sky-high scores. The industry, which includes informal tutoring, group and online classes, books, and mobile apps, has been valued anywhere between $1 billion and $4 billion.

In an attempt to level the playing field, the College Board is working with Khan Academy to develop free, online test prep through videos and interactive practice problems. “For too long, there’s been a well-known imbalance between students who could afford test prep courses and those who couldn’t,” says Sal Khan, founder. “No other test prep vendor will have the access or the technical sophistication that we can offer all students at no charge.” Coleman says it is not a financial relationship, although Khan told FORBES there may be fundraising involved in the future.

Dr. William C. Hiss, a faculty member and former admissions dean at Bates, was the principal investigator for a new three-year national study on test optional admission policies which found no significant differences in the success rates of students who provided standardized admissions test scores and those who had not. “The differences between submitters and non-submitters are five one-hundredths of a GPA point, and six-tenths of one percent in graduation rates,” according to the study. The College Entrance Examination Board was founded in 1900 by the presidents of 12 leading universities in an attempt to standardize the admissions process and the first SAT was given to high school students in 1926.